306 Alexander s exploits on the Western Banks of the Indus. [April, 



with ancient geography. I may possibly avail myself of these materials 

 hereafter, to furnish a complement to my conjectures on Alexander's 

 marches through Bactria, 



The country which I am about to describe, is intersected by three 

 principal rivers, viz. the Khonar, the Pendjecoore, and the Suwat. 



The first directs its course S. S. W. along the southern side of the 

 snowy chain above alluded to, dividing CafFristan from the cantons of 

 Bajore and Dhyr, and after rolling its impetuous waters through 

 a bed strewn with rocks, wherein it would be difficult to meet any sand, 

 it falls into the Cabul river, almost opposite the city of Jellalabad. I 

 know not where it rises ; some place its source in Cachgar, which it 

 intersects. The proximity of the snowy chain, and the direction of the 

 river's course, denote that it must necessarily have more than one influx. 

 During the liquefaction of the snow it acquires so great a volume of 

 water that it cannot be crossed but on rafts. This river, as I have stated 

 in my memoirs, is denominated Sind by the Kaffrees who inhabit its 

 banks, and Khonar by the Affghans, a name borrowed from a town that 

 is the capital of a canton or district situated on its western bank, be- 

 tween Jellalabad and Bajore. Some travellers improperly give it the 

 name of Khameh.* This may be possibly the Choes of Arrian, which 

 Alexander coasted on his march to Suastus, to which his troops may 

 have given the name of Choes, a corruption probably of that of Cheva, a 

 canton situated at its confluence with the Cabul river, which may have 

 anciently given its name to this river, as the town of Khonar gave its 

 own. As the Greeks sometimes translated the names of foreign places, 

 and liked to call them by particular ones somehow connected with the 

 traditions they indiscriminately adopted, they may possibly have baptized 

 with the name of Choes one of the rivers of those regions, in memory 

 of the festival of Choes (Xoec) or of the libations which the Athenians 

 celebrated in the month of Anthesterion in honor of Bacchus, .and which 

 they also styled 'Av^f^rjpia. 



After what Strabo relates, we would be led to suppose that the 

 river in question is his Choaspes, which disembogues, according to him, 

 into the Cophenes. 



The Penjecoore rising in Ghilghit, flows between the Khonar and 

 the Suwat : its direction is from north to south. It is called Penjecoori 

 because it is formed from the union of Jive other rivers, viz. the Tal, 

 the Laori, the Awchiri, the Neag, and the Jinde* ; the first of which is the 

 most considerable of the five. Besides those influents, it receives 



* This river is marked (i Kama H." in Tassin's map'. 



